Dems in tough spot on immigration

Everyone in the House immigration group sitting around a table in the Longworth House Office Building agreed with the House bipartisan immigration proposal — except for the California Democrat.

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As bells rang last week throughout the Capitol, signifying a vote on the floor, Becerra looked shocked, according to sources present in the room. He pointedly declined to endorse the draft and then walked into a hallway filled with reporters.

The House Democratic Caucus chairman knew that he couldn’t endorse a proposal to deny citizenship to undocumented immigrants who took government health subsidies. The language was too tentative — it had been scrawled in four sentences on an 8½-by-11-inch sheet of paper after it was proposed by Democrats, according to sources familiar with the talks.

It also hadn’t been vetted by another group Becerra is a member of — the House Democratic leadership.

As the House struggles to wrap up its immigration bill, Becerra is torn between two roles: his part in the bipartisan group and his position in Democratic leadership, where he is under pressure from a progressive caucus not to give too much ground to the Republicans. He wouldn’t comment for this story.

The Democratic leadership’s opposition to the health care language that the bipartisan group agreed to in that room last week is holding up the release of a House proposal.

Becerra, a 20-year congressional veteran, and his dual roles have defined the latest stages of the negotiations.

As one of the chamber’s top Hispanic lawmakers, he has a strong incentive to enact sweeping reform. The momentum for reform is there, and Becerra is on the crest.

But as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus — and the only member of his party’s leadership younger than 70 — he has his eyes firmly fixed on leading a House caucus that is both aging and shifting to the left. He could be the party’s next leader, but he has to ensure he’s not crosswise with the caucus’s liberal majority, which could provide the votes to elect him. Furthermore, he has to protect a president and a Democratic leadership that seem far more interested in the bipartisan Senate bill than in the House legislation.

“He’s played a necessary role,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “Luis [Gutierrez] has, Zoe [Lofgren] has. But the pushback on the health care is reflective of the pushback we get from advocates outside this Congress. And I agree that it goes beyond restrictive, it’s into the punitive side now, what the Republicans are proposing can’t get any support of any kind. … There’s a need to get something done, but I think by raising the question ‘at what expense’ is legitimate. Xavier is doing that.”

Most people didn’t want to talk about Becerra’s role in immigration reform on the record — including Becerra himself, who declined to be interviewed for this story. A Becerra aide said that “once the members bipartisan working group introduce their bill, then it will be appropriate to discuss the details.”

Even as the negotiations have soured over the past few days, Becerra is remaining publicly optimistic, saying a deal is close and momentum is building.

“We’re still meeting. I think there’s a hope that, since we’ve got a break coming up soon, we get there as quickly as possible,” Becerra told reporters Wednesday.

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: Libby Isenstein @ 05/23/2013 02:32 PM
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect that Eric Cantor was the majority, not the minority, leader in the 112th Congress.